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A Spiritual Lesson In Toon Language: Lesson 45c1

Topic: The Seven Deadly Sins III: Gluttony I - God and Food

Series: The Muppet Show, Simpsons, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Episodes: Sex And Violence (The Muppet Show), King-Size Homer (The Simpsons), Maximum Homerdrive (Simpsons), Rita's Pita (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers)

Lesson PDF link: 45c1.pdf

Introduction

Today we are talking about another of the Seven Deadly Sins. This Sin is known as Gluttony. What is Gluttony? Normally, people think about the act of eating too much which is hard to dodge sometimes. However, I was told once that it may mean more than that. I prayed about it and I think that person was right. We are going to take a tour of Gluttony with a four part series. We will start with eating too much, which is the obvious. Second, we will talk about money and prestige with a side of selfishness. Third we will talk about material possessions with another side of selfishness. Fourth, we will talk about waste of resources. This might be more cartoon demonstration than usual, but I think it's worth it. We will have a moderate Bible study and some discussion within each part. Let's get started.

Cartoon Clip #1: "Sex And Violence" (The Muppet Show)

The Muppet Show: "Sex And Violence": Direct link for video/webmUsing IE? Video not working? Download Windows HTML 5(WebM) video support: WebMProject.org

What did you see in this clip? In this extremely short clip, we see that Gluttony comes in with a bunch of junk food and a fruit hat. He is stocked on food and says he likes to crunch and munch and evidently will probably eat even if he's full.

Cartoon Show: King-Size Homer (The Simpsons)

For this cartoon, we will watch the whole thing in clip form. There are nine clips that we will be discussing. Because we are indeed showing the whole thing, you might want to just watch the whole thing in one shot. If there is a group that wants this option, afterward, talk about all sections (ball park figure) and replay different sections as desired if people forget.

The cartoon show for the whole thing is:

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

Clip # 1 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Evidently, Homer hears that someone is on disability and will miss morning exercise. Homer wants in and tries to hurt himself and then looks through a disability book for anything that makes him disabled. He finds he is not disabled and then he sees a listing and qualifications of Hyper- Obesity and wants in. This is foolish in itself, but it gets worse.

Clip # 2 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer's fantasises are getting pretty weird (as usual) and are giving him a false sense of security. Usually, when someone is involved in an action that he/she shouldn't do this happens. We always try to justify things as humans.

Clip # 3 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer is starting to reap the damaging effects of his plan, but he doesn't know it yet. Marge is in a sense, warning Homer that he is starting to look bad, he has also eaten all of the food in the house which could hurt everybody else in the house as well.

Clip # 4 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer's first day of work starts off okay, but soon, he finds himself thirsty and hot all the time and he is not a good role model for Bart who just about idolizes his dad and wants to be just like him (lardo on workman's comp.). Things are even more so visibly against Homer's plan, except he still doesn't see it.

Clip # 5 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? The damaging effects of Homer's plan are still escalating. Lisa feels like she has to lie about a cake being baked to send Homer to the kitchen. Marge finally intervenes a little with a pro/con game/study. For the moment though, this plan doesn't seem to be working because Homer above everything else is now arrogant. It will take much bigger things to turn this around.

Clip # 6 of The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer tries to be productive, but I think his weight is starting to catch up to him. He is becoming increasingly tired and distracted. Soon his plan crashes down on him hard with circumstances about to get bad if he continues.

Clip # 7 The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer":

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer, being increasingly distracted wants to neglect his duties for a movie and tries to put a toy bird that pops up and down on computer duties to cover. This does not go well and incidently neither does his movie idea as you will see. Homer is also getting made fun of by the schoolyard bullies and Milhouse.

Clip # 8 The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Homer is now getting made fun of by movie goers and onlookers. Homer finally starts to make a little sense when he wants his dignity and to be a role model for other obese people. Luckily, there is one more clip remaining so it's not to late for him.

Clip # 9 The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer"

The Simpsons: "King-Size Homer": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? All of the disadvantages and bad circumstances of Homer's plan have come to full fruition and Homer has to endure being obese while trying to turn off the tank's switch before the town gets blown sky high. In real life, this would be considered God's intervention. Homer actually saves the day with his obese self when a slimmer person might have died. Homer was very fortunate. Now we will look at a truly ethical way to sum up this area of the lesson on eating too much.

Cartoon Clip Show: Rita's Pita (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers)

Our lesson's storyline continues with these 7 clips from this episode. If need be, watch the whole episode, but then the same thing applies as to the last set of clips. Try your best to discuss the sections of the episode after watching it all if this is the option that's best.

Cartoon link for whole episode:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

Clip # 1 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? In this clip, we see that Tommy has a student named Danny. Danny really likes Tommy being his teacher and role model and this fact is being talked about. However, the bad guys have it in for him and single him out for an attack. Tommy says something that makes sense - that being what you put in your body is important and convinces Danny not to go for fattening foods. How often does that happen to us; we a lot of times go for too much fat in our foods and not enough nutrition?

Clip # 2 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? This is what I see, in typical Power Rangers fashion, Bulk and Skull play opposite of truth. Skull tries out the 'indigestion inducer' although Bulk tries to warn him (I think also Bulk is trying to not laugh on camera). Now, I have to admit that I get pretty hungry, but that still would probably last me seemingly a few days at least.

Clip # 3 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? Rita receives the Ravenator Monster from Finster and immediately shrinks him to become the equivalent of our tapeworm. This is very evil and the monster soon works on Tommy.

Clip # 4 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? What I see is that Tommy is not acting as healthy as usual and what's worse is that his student Danny is right there. Granted, Tommy is under the influence of Ravenator, but in the real life scheme of things, he is making a mistake, just as we all do (except possibly not to this extreme). This in real life could be a literal medical disorder that stops you from feeling full. It would be pretty dangerous. For the sake of the lesson and what it represents though, we need to understand that Ravenator represents the sinful habit of overeating and its consequences. Tommy now is in full blown addiction mode.

Clip # 5 Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? The situation is getting worse for Danny because now all he thinks about is that Tommy is a fraud (preaching about body management and now this). Zordon says Tommy is in grave danger because the monster eats anything. (I take it to mean that Ravenator would eventually eat Tommy alive after it becomes strong enough and has had its fun.)

Clip # 6 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? What I see is that Tommy's friends come up with a brilliant reverse psychology plan. They explain things about Ravenator to Tommy and then get what Tommy is craving and then encourage Tommy to not eat it, all the while making him look at a huge delicious sundae. Ravenator gets frustrated and gets out of Tommy's system, but in fight mode. As all sinful habits are, there is a fight to win, that's where God comes in.

Clip # 7 of Rita's Pita:

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: "Rita's Pita": Direct link for video/webm

What do you see in this clip? After Ravenator gets blown up, Tommy has some fences to mend. Luckily, it wasn't too late to appologize and they are back to where they were before Ravenator. Sometimes, this isn't very easy, nor does it probably work 100% of the time. This is of course an ideal ending. Even if it weren't in real life, God can still work around or through even that.

We will now look at a moderate amount of scripture on the subject.

The Bible states in Philippians 3: 17-21 (NIV):

17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.

18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The Bible States In I Corinthians 3: 16-17

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Now, lets take some time to see that we have kept up. What have we learned? So, understand this, that we are living temples and we should treat our bodies this way. We don't want to act like Homer, Tommy, or Gluttony from our various shows so far.

We have one more cartoon clip and a couple more passages to look at for this part of the Gluttony tour.

Cartoon clip from "Maximum Homerdrive" (The Simpsons):

The Simpsons: "Maximum Homerdrive": Direct link for video/webm

What did you see in this clip? In this clip, we see that excessive Gluttony has taken someone's life. This cartoon really does show that this isn't worth it because the risks are great and the rewards are puny compared to eternity. Homer has gotten fortunate again however, even though the owner expects him to die and gives Marge a body bag too.

The Bible states in Romans 8: 5-8; 12-13 (NIV):

5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live

What have we learned? I know that this is talking about spiritual death, but I also want to point out that in some sinful cases like this brand of Gluttony, it would accelerate the physical death and not let you eventually have quality years in the time you are physically around. Most of the role models of this area of the lesson were not good role models at first and this is especially true for Homer. As for Gluttony, he isn't a good role model for anyone, period.